Ask a Data Protection Officer what actually keeps them up at night, and it's rarely one catastrophic hack — it's the thousand small ways personal data gets copied, stored, shared and quietly forgotten across an organisation every single day.

U.S. frameworks such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and HIPAA, alongside international benchmarks like the GDPR, have turned that everyday handling of data into a matter of direct legal and financial accountability, not just good intentions.

The Arab British Fellowship Training Academy's "Personal Data Protection" course walks participants through what these standards actually require: classifying data correctly, assessing and reducing risk, building policies that hold up in an audit, and responding properly when protection fails.

Who Should Attend?

• Data Protection Officers (DPOs) responsible for regulatory compliance.
• IT and Security Managers overseeing data protection measures and infrastructure.
• Legal advisors guiding organisations on data privacy compliance.
• Compliance officers in organisations handling sensitive data.
• HR managers who handle employee data and need to apply data protection practice correctly.
• Business owners and executives who need to understand what's at stake for their organisation's sustainability and reputation.

Knowledge and Benefits:

• Apply the principles of personal data protection as required under U.S. standards and regulation.
• Classify different types of personal data and the risks specific to each.
• Put practical protection measures in place aligned with the most relevant U.S. data protection laws.
• Clarify the roles of data controllers, processors and data protection officers.
• Assess the risk and impact of a data breach, and build strategies to reduce it.
• Build a data protection policy that satisfies U.S. regulation and holds up under audit.

Module 1: Why Personal Data Protection Is Now a Legal Question, Not Just an IT One

• What counts as personal data, and the core principles that govern how it must be handled.
• U.S. laws and standards — CCPA, HIPAA and related frameworks — that set the baseline.

Module 2: Classifying Data and Assessing Real Risk

• Classifying personal data by sensitivity, and why that classification drives everything else.
• Running risk assessments and Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs) before problems start.

Module 3: Who's Responsible for What: Controllers, Processors and DPOs

• Clarifying the roles of data controllers, processors and Data Protection Officers.
• Building a compliance framework that assigns clear accountability.

Module 4: Turning Principles into Written Policy

• Creating data protection policies that are specific enough to actually be followed.
• Embedding those policies into everyday operational decisions.

Module 5: Technical Safeguards: Encryption and Storage

• Encrypting data at rest and in transit as a baseline control.
• Securing storage systems against unauthorised access.

Module 6: Controlling Who Gets In: Access and Authentication

• Designing access control policies that match data sensitivity.
• Strengthening authentication as a first line of defence.

Module 7: Securing the Network and Systems Around the Data

• Network and system-level security measures that protect data in motion.
• Where these controls commonly fail, and how to close the gaps.

Module 8: When Protection Fails: Handling and Reporting a Breach

• Building an incident response plan specific to data breaches.
• Reporting and documenting breaches correctly under U.S. regulatory requirements.

Module 9: Auditing, Correcting and Building a Lasting Culture

• Conducting data protection audits and turning findings into corrective action.
• Building a culture where data protection is a habit, not an annual exercise.